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Chocolate Hazelnut Espresso Torte with Raspberry and Chocolate Ganache
Does what it says on the tin. Tastes actually better than it sounds.
Ok. Not vegan, not especially healthy. But my partner's parents are coming to stay for a week, which occasioned me to break this recipe out for the third time. It's slightly adapted from the recipe for Queen of Sheba Chocolate Almond Torte, from the Joy of Cooking.
For this, you will need:
1 springform baking pan (9 inch), or a combination of smaller ones
1 pan, large enough to hold some water and
1 metal bowl, medium-big. (Depends on which way you want to add things later - into or out of)
2 smaller bowls, any material
1 saucepan, small.
1 cuisinart (Or, in a pinch, a coffee grinder and a third bowl)
1 electric mixer or an egg beater and patience
1 rubber spatula
17 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped or, you know, chips.
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) butter.
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup hazelnuts
6 eggs
3/4 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown (or more white) sugar
Powdered espresso (Or two shots of the real stuff. 1/4 cup worth)
Vanilla extract
3/4 cup heavy cream.
Seedless raspberry jam.
Ok. Preheat the oven to 375. Or skip this and do it later. Just saying.
Chop up the butter, put it in the metal bowl. Put the metal bowl in the pan, and put water in the pan. Like a double boiler. Melt the butter, add 9oz (1 1/2 cups) chocolate chips.
The recipe says both 'stir often' and 'meanwhile grind', but I think a couple good stirs at first and a couple later will do it.
The hazelnuts need to be toasted, then rolled around in a balled up dishtowel to get their skins off. I use a toaster oven. I'm sure an oven would work, too.
Grind the hazelnuts and the flour in your cuisinart. Or your coffee grinder. Beware - mix the flour in. I didn't and I got hazelnut butter in my coffee grinder.
Put that stuff in the third bowl, or else leave it in the cuisnart.
Separate 6 eggs. Keep yolks and whites.
In one of the two smaller bowls, whisk six yolks, 1/2 cup white sugar, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup espresso (or a generous tablespoon of the powdered stuff inside 1/4 cup of the water conveniently simmering under the melty chocolate on the stove), and 1/8 teaspoon vanilla. Measuring spoons don't come that small, but the recipe originally wanted 1/4 cup brandy and 1/8 tsp almond, so if you double that in vanilla, you'll be fine. Whisk until (it says) thick and pale yellow. Espresso instead of brandy means it's going to be a sort of burnt ochre instead.
Take the chocolate off the stove, whisk in the egg mixture .
In that last bowl, beat the egg whites "until soft peaks form", gradually add, beating on high speed, 1/4 cup sugar. Beat until peaks are stiff but not dry.
Ok - the egg whites are the only thing in this whole recipe that 'rises'. Tortes are supposed to be wet and heavy, so you don't want to make meringue here. You just want to get the egg whites fluffy enough to support the weight of all that chocolate and butter stuff in the other bowl. Ok? Ok.
So - fold 1/4 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, along with the nuts and flour. Fold in the remaining whites. It says it like that, I do it like that, I don't know why I can't just add them all at once. Use the rubber spatula for this. The chocolate gunk is great out of the bowl, so don't give into temptation. Bake it, it's worth it.
Scrape batter into pan(s). Before doing this, butter the bottom of the pan, and then flour it - I take this to mean, throw some flour in the bottom of the pan, sweep it around over the butter, then tap the rest out.
Bake 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out dry.
To get them out of the pan, after they cool, slide a butter knife around the edge to detach, then flatten it with the first 2 knuckles of your hand, smushing it all down to a levelish surface, then flip it upside down onto a plate and release the spring-thing. Yay!
So - cakes are baked and cooled, and that heavy cream and the rest of the chocolate are sitting with the jam. Now it gets good.
Boil the cream. Add the chocolate. Stir. Remove from heat. Cover, let sit ten minutes.
You just made Ganache.
Spread raspberry jam onto cake. Pour ganache liberally all over, spreading it on the sides if you feel fancy.
If you can, refrigerate because it's just incredible cold. If you can't, it's really good warm, and pretty heavy, so there should be some leftovers. I use 3 smaller springform pans, mostly so I can give away the largest of the cakes. Don't want 3 of these beasts lurking in the fridge, calling out to me at all hours of the night... |
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